LONDON — Backed by current owner Debenhams Group, formerly Boohoo Group, Debenhams is bringing back its popular Designers at Debenhams initiative, with Ashish Gupta, a master of camp, glamorous sequin creations as the debut talent.
A small edit from the upcoming collaboration will be revealed as part of Ashish’s spring 2026 show on Monday. The official campaign is set to be released on Oct. 1, while the range will be available to shop from Oct. 9 exclusively on Debenhams.com with prices ranging from 59 pounds to 195 pounds.
Debenhams is a British retail institution, which had more than 178 physical stores at its peak and a robust beauty offer. Like many other U.K. retailers with large store estates, it fell on hard times. In 2021, the fast fashion giant Boohoo acquired it out of administration, and turned it into an online department store.
According to the retailer’s chief executive officer Dan Finley, Debenhams has grown into “a profitable and highly cash-generating” business with 650 million pounds-plus in gross merchandise volume and more than 15,000 brands in its ecosystem. Its customer base ranges from ages 17 to 70.
Dan Finley with Ashish Gupta
Finley called 2025 “an ideal time” to bring back Designers at Debenhams, a trailblazing initiative from the early 1990s that saw talents such as Julien Macdonald, Matthew Williamson, John Rocha, and Jasper Conran create dedicated collections for the store.
The partnership enriched the department store’s fashion credibility and provided a steady revenue stream for the designers, many of whom were able to keep their own brands afloat as a result.
“I think in these challenging economic times, it’s all the more important that we can democratize style, break down barriers between catwalk and the closet, and make great designer-led products available at accessible price points,” Finley added.
Sketches for the Ashish Designers at Debenhams debut collection.
Courtesy of Ashish/Debenhams
The executive described Ashish as “a dynamic, energetic and exciting” pick for the Designers at Debenhams’ relaunch.
“I couldn’t think of anybody better. He’s renowned for his unapologetic glamour, wit and creativity, and it sets the perfect tone for a bold new era for our brand and this initiative. There is so much more to come as we go forward. Designers at Debenhams has always been great at championing British design for both established designers and new and upcoming talent,” said Finley.
For Gupta, who launched his namesake label in 2001 after graduating from Central Saint Martins, working with Debenhams has been a rewarding experience for both parties.
He first came across Designers at Debenhams in 1995, when he was doing a course at the London College of Fashion, whose Oxford Street campus was only a few blocks away from the Debenhams flagship.
“My earliest memory with it was walking past those massive advertisements outside the store when they were doing the collaborations. It was a time when I was forming my own impressions of what things were. So I guess I have always associated Debenhams with those collaborations. It’s actually quite lovely that I’m in that position doing that very same project now,” said Gupta.
With the group’s extensive global supply chain, Gupta said he didn’t feel he had to compromise for the range.
“They’ve got such a great team of people who have managed to do quite a lot in quite a short amount of time, without actually feeling like we’ve had to cut corners or pull back. Just to be able to have the level of freedom within that has been really wonderful,” said Gupta.
The Debenhams range is manufactured by a network of factories across Asia. The designer’s personal favorite in the collection, a multicolored, oversized faux fur coat, is made in China.
“They have this wonderful dialogue with the factory, where it’s very collaborative. I think that’s such a nice thing. Sometimes with factories, it can be difficult,” said Gupta, whose main line often involves labor-intensive embroideries done by local artisans in India.
“We have this fantasy of doing this coat with a graffiti effect, but we didn’t quite know how to do it. The factory eventually came up with this new technique of digital spray paint on fake fur after many experiments. I think it’s exciting to be able to make things like that and have them accessible to a whole new audience,” he continued.
At the same time, one can argue that the teams at Debenhams, as well as on a group level, benefited from working with a well-known designer like Gupta, since he was able to produce an accessible collection with a unique voice by fine-tuning what’s already in place.
Sketches for the Ashish Designers at Debenhams debut collection.
Courtesy of Ashish/Debenhams
The new Designers at Debenhams is different from the group’s previous fashion collaborations, which were more celebrity-led with the likes of Paris Hilton, Kourtney Kardashian, and Megan Fox working with the company.
Gupta described the new range as “fun, colorful, and sparkly.” In addition to the faux fur coat, it includes new iterations of Ashish’s signature sequin designs, as well as “beautiful knitwear that I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to do,” he said.
He also expects those designs to work harmoniously with the pieces in his main line, the designer said.
